Victory! Raley’s Discontinues Sale of Live Lobsters

Update: After Thousands of Complaints From Customers, Raley’s Has Agreed to Discontinue the Sale of Live Lobsters in Its Stores!

Earlier this week, a customer of Raley’s—which is a popular grocery chain in Nevada, New Mexico, and California—sent PETA disturbing pictures of live lobsters kept in tiny plastic containers barely larger than the lobsters’ bodies in a Raley’s store. After PETA put an action alert up on our site last night, thousands of people wrote to the company to ask that they abandon this cruel practice immediately and consider following in the footsteps of chains like Safeway and Whole Foods and discontinue the sale of live lobsters entirely.

This morning, we received an e-mail from Raley’s announcing that the company would do just that! Raley’s Spokesperson Nicole Townsend gave PETA the following statement:

Raley’s Family of Fine Stores offered live Maine lobsters to our customers for three days during the holiday season. Raley’s will not repeat this promotion or offer live lobsters in any of its stores.

It goes without saying that this is a massive victory for lobsters everywhere, who suffer immeasurably in grocery-store lobster tanks before being boiled alive. Raley’s compassionate decision—along with the example of Safeway and Whole Foods—sends a strong message to supermarkets everywhere that cruelty of this sort simply will not be tolerated. A huge thank you to everyone who took the time to write to Raley’s about this issue! Thanks to your kindness, countless lobsters will be saved from a horrific fate.

Commenting is closed.

Thank You PETA and all the people that help make victories like this one happen. GO LOBSTERS. Now if we could just stop the use of Lobsters in those “claw” machines for stuffed animals here in Jacksonville FL. A lobsters life is not a game!

You know you would think people would finally start making an effort trying to save those wonderful creatures intead of confining them to tiny plastic bags or fish tanks. How much more do animals have to take until the last person will finally see how much pain and suffering we bring to this planet?

I purchased 2 lobsters during the recent sale and found that the package labeled 2.2 lbs advertized at $9.99lbreally only contained a 1.1 lb lobster. I was paying $10lb for the lobster AND $10lb for the seaweed and package. My complaint was about deceptive packaging but Raley’s VP of meat and fish later told me that this was ok because the ad said “seaweed included”. Perhaps equally important however is the fact that the minimum size for fishermen to keep lobsters is 1.25 lbs and so these were illegal catches as far as I can tell. Again Railey’s told me everything was above board.

Congratulation to PETA for Good Work I’m pleased that Raley’s has discontinued his sales of his live lobsters in their store. However I feel that this is only the tip of the iceberg I still feel morally outraged that abundant supply of live lobsters can still be ordered from the internet Live lobsters are forced to darkness and isolation with barely no room to move while in transit. To my ignorance I thought this was in breach of postal regulations I didn’t think postal services accept live animals perhaps they do. I feel this is going to be harder to stop this sort of thing. Anyway keep up the goodwork PETA

I am horrified to read the sickening news of what they do to the poor lobsters its sickening to think people actually go into these stores and watch this happen I know if it was a store in England there would be an outcry people would be in their thousands protesting and certainly would boycott the whole store but I am so glad of the breaking news when I received my e mail this morning I was due to write to them today after receiving my e mail yesterday WELL DONE PETA and the people who care xx

It’s already a shame that the lobsters must die please harbor them more humanely if they must die. It is important that these animals be treated as humanely as possible. We really must strive to share our world. I understand that we all can’t be vegetarian or vegan however it helps these creatures to live their lives to treat them properly.

It is so heart warming when animal abusers see the horror in what they do andor support. And when they come out publicly to denounce cruelty such as has Raley’s they move over into my hero’s list. Thank you Raley’s for your compassionate decision regarding defensless lobsters.

Victory is the lobsters!! Viva lobsters! I signed this petition and wrote a personal note of disgust to Raley’s and I am SOO happy and relieved to see that this store and all of it’s sister stores banned this cruel and inhumae act! Kudos to Raley’s! I am VERY proud of them and will definitely let them know that as we all should! Great job to all who participated in this ban and Congrats to the innocent lobsters!

I am happy to know that Raley’s took what everyone had to say so seriously. It is nice to know that they care enough to do something that a lot of companies would look at as an action that could “cost them money later”. It shows what they really care about. That was a great thing. Thank you both Raley’s and PETA.

This is very nice they stopped to sell living lobsters… Perso. I find this practice horrible and contacted in BelgiumEurope the food reseller Delhaize to ask them to stop the SAME practice… Delhaize seems one of the few big supermarkets having some und. for vegetarian peoples… Delhaize told me that they make a very big profit on lobsters and even if they stopped CST will go somewhere else… It is not an answer and I ask European CST to contact theirs supermarkets and asked them to stop selling living animals… How can you enter a store and look at those aquariums filled by those poor lobsters and not feel some compassion ? It is my case and I feel sad everytime when I look… It is time to open our eyes…

Thank God Raleys have ceased to use live lobsters why cant so many other fishmongers and shops take the same action and not use live creatures it’s a horrendous inhumane act that we can and SHOULD stop. Humans are the cruelest species on this planet

Almost all of us grew up eating meat, wearing leather, and going to circuses and zoos. We never considered the impact of these actions on the animals involved. For whatever reason, you are now asking the question: Why should animals have rights? Read more.